Skip to main content

Plath, Otto Plath

The following is a post first started between June and December 2012, revisited briefly in June 2014, and then forgotten about as I was working full time on the letters of Sylvia Plath project. I felt it was important to work on the blog some more this fall with the intention of posting it on 5 November, which was the 75th anniversary of the death of Otto Plath. But then other things got in the way...

Recently, though, I had a change of heart about the bulk of this post. Much of what I wanted to say I learned years ago but will refrain from posting now as I believe that Heather Clark, in her forthcoming biography of Sylvia Plath, will discuss at beautiful and thorough length the history and biography of Otto Plath.

However, what I do still want to relate is interesting information I obtained Warren's Plath's daughter Susan in June 2014 concerning something Paul Alexander wrote as fact in his biography of Sylvia Plath, Rough Magic. Alexander writes, "On April 13, 1885, in the village of Grabow, Germany, he a born Otto Emil Platt" (Da Capo Press edition, 2003: 15). This is patently not true. Susan told me that when she asked Alexander about this several years ago he admitted that he simply made it up. (And makes me wonder what else he made up in his book! Rough Magic, indeed ) So, if you ever happen to read anywhere that Otto Plath was born Platt, please keep in mind this valuable information provided by the PLATH family.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Hélène11 December, 2015 05:10

    I've never read rough magic because it seemed to take sides like some other bios did. I can't believe biographers just make things up to fill gaps?! Is this a common occurence in Plath biography? Mention of a new one piques my curiosity however.

    ReplyDelete
  2. suki15 December, 2015 08:26

    I read Rough Magic. I've read all the biographies. Biography has to take a side. It has to posit a stance , although in the case of the Plath biography , it seems that there are lots of things that don't accord with the Estate and there are sides, rather than opinions. I hadn't realised though that Alexander admitted to making things up. There are a few other 'facts' which weren't in the other books.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter K Steinberg15 December, 2015 15:00

    Hand-posting this from Right Mind Matters because I accidentally lost the original post:

    It is disturbing to read that Alexander made up the one fact; as you say, Peter it could mean others were made up too. I did like that "fact" though, since it corresponded with my married last name, Carole Brooks Platt. These Platts originally came from Ware, England.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anna27 December, 2015 13:11

    I really think it's horrible to acually know (as opposed to suspect) that biographers make things up and the mere fact that they actually do, is really despicable! I have read Rough Magic many years ago and I kind of liked it back then (before I knew about all that Estate drama etc.), because I really liked the extensive chapters on Otto and Aurelia's biographies. And now, even those are ruined, because I cannot trust Alexander anymore. :(

    However, I wonder now what Otto's last name actually was, since Platt really would have made sense taking his German descent into consideration and Plath is definitely not a German or a Polnish name. Did Susan say anything about that?

    ReplyDelete
  5. citronyella03 May, 2017 16:18

    Has Heather Clark or anyone researched Otto Plath's World War One registration draft card in the National Archives?

    During World War I there were three registrations.[9]
    The first, on June 5, 1917, was for all men between the ages of 21 and 31.
    The second, on June 5, 1918, registered those who attained age 21 after June 5, 1917. A supplemental registration, included in the second registration, was held on August 24, 1918, for those becoming 21 years old after June 5, 1918.
    The third registration was held on September 12, 1918, for men age 18 through 45. From wiki selective service act 1917.

    The third registration would have applied to him as he was in this country. Since the FBI performed an investigation of him, it may have been triggered by his non participation in the registration. Would love to have more info on him in the "missing years".

    ReplyDelete
  6. Peter K Steinberg03 May, 2017 20:55

    Hi Citronyella! As I'm sure you know for the first draft in 1917 Otto Plath was 32 years old, and thus outside of the range of years for the draft. But you are right about the third draft. Have you read the FBI files? If I read it correctly, Plath had to register as a resident alien (?) and if this is the case then he wasn't yet a US Citizen, so would he have had to register for the draft? He was naturalized as a US Citizen in 1921. One of the pages gives a good breakdown of his whereabouts from 1910 to 1918. I can email them to you if you like? Please contact me peterksteinberg AT hotmail DOT com.

    ReplyDelete
  7. citronyella05 May, 2017 09:43

    https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-26182-54416-46?cc=1968530

    Thank you for your speedy reply. I was doing research (on my family history) in the National Archives Great War draft registration card records on line and found the above link to an Otto Emil Plath, same name, same dob, but in California. It was intriguing, and though I am sure its just a coincidence, still it made me wonder since he was on the west coast in 1912 at the University of Washington. The nearest relative information tells that it could not have been Sylvia Plath's father.

    I have not read all of the FBI reports, if you would be so kind to send them to me, I would appreciate it. Please send to the email address linked to my Citronyella account.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove...
2 comments
Read more

Some final photographs of Sylvia Plath

Susan O'Neill-Roe took a series of photographs of Sylvia Plath and her children from October to late November (or maybe early December) 1962 while she was a day nanny/mother's help at Court Green. From nearby Belstone , it was a short drive to North Tawton and the aid she provided enabled Plath to complete the masterful October and November poems and also to make day or overnight trips to London for poetry business and other business.  Some of O'Neill-Roe's photographs are well-known.  However, a cache of photographs formed a part of the papers of failed biographer Harriet Rosenstein. They were sold separately from the rest of her papers that went to Emory. I was fortunate enough to see low resolution scans of them a while back so please note these are being posted today as mere reference quality images.  There are two series here. The first of the children with Plath dressed in red and black. (This should be referred to in the future, please, as Plath's  Stendhal-c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sylvia Plath's Gravestone Vandalized

The following news story appeared online this morning: HEPTONSTALL, ENGLAND (APFS) - The small village of Heptonstall is once again in the news because of the grave site of American poet Sylvia Plath. The headstone controversy rose to a fever pitch in 1989 when Plath's grave was left unmarked for a long period of time after vandals repeatedly chiseled her married surname Hughes off the stone marker. Author Nick Hornby commented, "I like Plath, but the controversy reaching its fever pitch in the 80s had nothing to do with my book title choice." Today, however, it was discovered that the grave was defaced but in quite an unlikely fashion. This time, Plath's headstone has had slashed-off her maiden name "Plath," so the stone now reads "Sylvia Hughes." A statement posted on Twitter from @masculinistsfortedhughes (Masculinists for Ted Hughes) has claimed responsibility saying that, "We did this because as Ted Hughes' first wife, Sylvia de...
22 comments
Read more